Mark 16:1-8
1When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
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“So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”—Mark 16:8a
My first reaction to Mark’s Easter story? “Seriously, Mark: this is how you end your story of Jesus? On Easter day I want more.” In the first verse of his gospel, Mark advertises his story of Jesus as “good news.” But here, at the end of the story we wonder: what kind of good news ends with the women running away from the tomb, “for terror and amazement had seized them.” The words are even stronger in Greek: tromos—trauma, and ecstasis—ecstasy. Trauma and ecstasy had seized them. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
And yet, of all the four Gospel stories of Easter, Mark invites us to stand where those first scared witnesses stood. The three women didn’t see Jesus. Neither do we. They didn’t hear Jesus call their names. Neither have we. They weren’t invited to touch his wounded hands. We haven’t touched Jesus’ hands either. Mark leaves us with no happy ending, no tying up of loose ends. He ends his Gospel with the witnesses afraid/traumatized at this earth-shattering event; amazed/in ecstasy of what Jesus’ rising from the dead means for everything. And isn’t that where we are, too?
But then we remember something Mark had reported earlier. “Go tell the disciples,” the young man said. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” In other words, the story isn’t over! Jesus is on the loose! He’s going ahead of us and who knows what will happen now! Mark’s ending to Jesus’ story? It’s an ending without end. “Christ is risen; he is risen, indeed!”
Prayer: “Dear Lord: You came back to us! You go ahead of us! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.”
—Pastor Mark Nelson